Tech Support Rating: Apple, Dell, Lenovo Top List

What about ASUS, Gigabyte, et el or is this just mainstream PC/laptop manufacturers?

...Dell?

I am glad to see Dell make a commitment to return to the top of the reliability list. However, I find their proprietary BIOS, system restore, and chassis to be a huge hindrance, without the proprietary benefits of some sort of idiot proof OS, like Apple...
Dell, you have GOT to loosen up. You are not Apple.

What is best though is when you don't have to call in the first place.
I think Apple should get points off for their weak 90 day free phone support.

CR generally just sticks with the mainstream. I don't think Asus was reviewed. Anyone got their last Gadgets Magazine?

i think asus came out on top in a survey of how many calls their customer service center got. Apple finished second in that one because 95% of its tech support is done at the apple store, eliminating almost all of their phone support, so their result wasn't very accurate.

I'll bet they didn't factor in the percent share of computers by brand - Apple may be scoring an 86 on their scale, but if it's an average of 100 or fewer customers, the data is worthless.
Does anyone subscribe to them and have more numbers?

Disclaimer: this may be seen as flamebait and is pure opinion based on message boards & people I've met..

The stereotypical Apple customers are a lot more rabidly supportive of Apple as a company and will give Apple higher praise than, say, an owner of a Laptop from a different company.

Asking loyal Apple customers to rate Apples support is like asking priests to rate their religion. Some will give a frank appraisal, but most love what they've bought into and won't knock it when asked questions by a stranger.

There usually isn't a need to use their tech support.

It's a good thing Asus tech support isn't needed that often, because they do make superior products...HOWEVER, if you DO need to ever use it, good luck ever getting a resolution. I have had to use it, and after multiple emails I got a canned response, no follow-up, and the tech support call line leads to individuals who have absolutely no idea what they are talking about.

Dell only got 55 out of 100 on desktops. Yeah, they're in the top of the one list, but that's like saying Dell is the thinnest kid at a fat camp. He's still fat.

I don't know about that Dell rating. At least from sales, I had a really good time ordering my laptop last week on the phone. Friendly, fast, smart. My laptop was ordered, processed, built, and shipped and arrived at my door step in 7 days. That's incredible.

You don't think there are people like that regarding pcs?

I am familiar with apple people and non-apple people, but I have never had the impression that there are "Dell people" or "HP people"

Not a delightful experience with Dell India. I wanted to know the price of Dell 20" 2009W monitor. So I called their India sales line and the call was transferred to the 'concerned department'. Someone picked up and when I asked about the pricing details, she said "no idea". Then asked about the availability of another model, for that she said - "no idea". :-D Probably she had a bad day at office?

- Rajesh, Zoho Corp

I dont have a problem with Acer. Of the times Ive called their line theyve helped me accurately. Id give Acer an 80 because u have to enter shitload of info when u call.

custom built tech support rating:
id give myself a 10..lol

If you have the gold support, yes, Dell is pretty good. If you don't, your *ucked.

My experience with Dell support has been quite good, though the only time I called them was during an off-peak time so the wait wasn't long, and all I needed was a replacement power adaptor for the laptop. Concerning these numbers I think that since Apple statistically has a smaller market share, it's reasonable that the support call wait times would be shorter. It's easy to provide good support if you don't have a lot of customers.

The free support only applies to non-fix related calls. Hardware warranty support calls are still covered for the full year, with or without Apple Care.

What you're essentially saying is Apple is the only company that offers a 90 day "question and answer support line" for 90 days while the others don;t offer that at all. You can call apple for "how do I..." questions for the first 90 days, whether or not you actually have a problem. And text chat for doing so is always free, as is making an appointment at an apple store to talk to a genius. The others offer no such help (if it ain't broke, don't call us" mentalities.)

LOL, that's because they didn't have your money yet. Pre-sales and sales are always WONDERFUL to deal with, virtually never have a hold queue, and actually call you back if you get disconnected.

btw: customer ordered Macs ship in 1 day, and arrive typically in 3... and MOST times, if you actually can and speak to apple direct instead of ordering online, it's REALLY EASY to talk them into a nice discount, or free extras. The guy in the cube next to me just got offered, without asking for it, a $400 discount off a new iMac simply because he only called "inquiring" and said he wasn't ready to commit. (he bought it, and talked the rep into free iWork and doubling the RAM too).

Dell has approx 11.5% of the world total PC marketshare in unit sales (and is dropping, it was 12.7 just this past October and 13.3% same quarter in 2008), including all their business and other customers. Apple has approx 8.7% of the world PC market in units shipped (out of the 90 million units in Q4-Jan 2010), and is growing at approx 10% per quarter.

Apple also out-earned dell in recent quarters in both revenue and profit on somewhat smaller unit sales.

Apple's customer base is about 70% of Dell's, 60% of acer, and 45% of HP. 90% of Apple buyers are repeat buyers, compared to less than 60% for Dell. Apple fields several million support calls per quarter. These are not small numbers compared to large, they're statistically close enough to call even for comparison.

The fact that apple sells about 70% what dell Does in units, but can profit 3-4x the same, and concurrently provide industry leading support and customer satisfaction should clearly prove they're doing right what the others are not. Keep in mind, this is PURELY PC NUMBERS, not including iPod, iPhone, software, or media store figures which are reported seperately. Apple's #1 profit business is still Mac Computers, as much as everyone likes to think their store is raking in money (it barely breaks even) and that iPhones/ipods are the real money (they're a fraction of PC profits).

@damesJ : No, because "PC" is not a company/brand.
@freename : I think you nailed it.
@frozenlead : You're right when you say that the proportion of Apple computers is probably much lower, but you can,t say the data is worthless. After all, a percentage is a percentage, even if it's from a small sample.

Lenovo? Sorry but those who took the survey obviously have some other agenda to support. Lenovo is garbage.

The problem with PC Tech Support is outsourcing. All the major PC venders outsource their tech support to companies like ClientLogic, Sitel, Onix and others. It doesn’t matter what brand you by they are supported by the same companies. I was working as a network admin for a very large outsourcer and we did support for Dell, Sony, Logitech, Micron (back when they made PC’s), Packard Bell, and Gateway. All supported out of the same building, just in different wings. All trained by the same people in our training department. Most venders have a defined metrics like call handle time. Meaning the average call take so many minutes to resolve. Then the client (Dell, HP, Whoever) only pays for the time the tech support agent is on the phone up to the average handle time. Anything over the average handle time is paid by the outsourcer. The tech support agents have to meet that average handle time metric or they will find themselves or they get fired. So the agents don’t care if they fix your problem or not, if they can fix it fast they will, but if they can’t then the blame it on windows and tell you to reload the system and call back if you still have problems. There is no incentive for them to fix your PC, only incentive to get you off the phone as fast as possible. This will never change until the big companies stop outsourcing and start caring about their products. That is why the difference between hp and dell desktop support in the report is only 2 points. Consumer Reports can do all the surveys they want it doesn’t change the fact all the consumer branded PC’s are still supported by the same outsources.

Some of my friends and I have recently had very miserable experiences with Apple products. We have had to suffer through multiple failures on each of several devices, including iPhones, Macbooks, and iMacs. I personally consider my Macbook Pro to be the most miserable computer I have ever owned.

That being said, Apple probably does have the best tech support of any computer company that I have worked with. They have Apple stores with Genius bars almost anywhere my friends or I travel. Most of the time, they can solve a given problem without shipping the given device anywhere, which means that the device can be quickly returned, sometimes even in the same day.

By comparison, most other brands I have worked with require you to work through a third party that may or may not have the needed parts to fix many common issues. More often than not, it is left to the customers to ship the item themselves. They then have to wait several weeks before their item is returned.

My personal favorite for tech support, however, is Asus. While I can understand how most people may dislike the way they handle things, I find it works quite well for me. On the two occasions that I've had problems with their products (a worn out chipset fan and a laptop keyboard that I accidentally smashed), they pointed me to their parts store, I ordered what I needed, and then performed the repair myself in my own home.

Obviously home repairs wouldn't work for most people, though. =P

I am not surprised at the results.